Chapter 56

A flash of light flickered.

The source of the light was the knight's sword held by the Azure Knight.

The azure light that burst forth from the sword as it was swung was a strike that reached to the horizon.

The moon wolf, targeted by the attack, reacted with a desperate movement.

From the stance of a charge, it twisted its body forcefully, trying to avoid the vertical line of light that was cast from a great distance.

It avoided.

The narrow gap was passed through by a thin azure light.

The cost of the forced evasive maneuver was the momentum of the charge and the opportunity to counterattack.

The Azure Knight, positioned at a distance, plunged the sword into the stone pavement and drew two magic arrays with both empty hands.

"Would a knight resort to magic as well!?"

The words spoken involuntarily were answered by a massive fireball.

The fireball, trailing a tail like a meteor, approached the moon wolf faster than a cannonball.

Another evasive maneuver. It was impossible; the stance was disrupted and there was no time to avoid it.

Then, neutralize it. Impossible, the scale was too large. The amount of magic contained in the approaching crimson fireball was so powerful that even the moon wolf would need to use a full-bodied strike to shatter it.

Rieve instantly abandoned the option of emerging unscathed and fully deployed a simple anti-magic barrier.

It exploded upon impact. The thunderous sound filled the space. Moreover, the sound of the explosion did not stop at a single burst.

Perhaps sensing the impact of the direct hit, the Azure Knight chose continuous fire without a pause.

The explosions resounded in a chorus, and the blooming crimson filled the field of vision.

—On the eighth shot, it broke free.

With both arms crossed in a cross, the moon wolf, having escaped the relentless bombardment, charged straight at the Azure Knight with the momentum of the breakthrough—!

"———!"

It cut through the flying azure flashes and closed in.

Close combat. The range where both could unleash their full combat power.

The moon wolf and the Azure Knight clashed again with fists and swords.

The roar of the fist.

The blade that tore through the air.

The consecutive strikes that could kill A-rank monsters with a single hit flew back and forth.

The sound woven from their aftermath was even more intense than the previous fireball, and the shockwaves created were more destructive than a thunderstorm.

Both inflicted wounds on each other, healed the damage, and constructed more effective tactics while fighting.

Then, Heryan, who had been watching the battle from a distance, let out a roar of frustration at the scene before him.

"Unbelievable...!"

The battle unfolding before his eyes was truly a divine duel.

Different dimensions of power collided repeatedly, and abilities akin to demigods manifested, making the power of the sword flashes and punches seem capable of shattering the very space itself.

It was already a human-shaped phenomenon of destruction.

A disaster with a will that could not be resisted by humans.

A brutal event that just happened to take a human form.

This was Heryan's honest impression, seen directly with his own eyes, unfiltered by the [Tactics Chronicle].

However, the cause of the curse he had just uttered was not that.

It was about the various abilities of the Azure Knight, which seemed abnormal even with the knowledge of myth-level threats.

From Heryan's knowledge, the Azure Knight was undoubtedly a close-combat class.

This was evident from the heavy armor, shield, and magnificent knight's sword that equipped the Knight. It was not a disguise to induce misidentification by the enemy. The strikes of the knight's sword were heavy and sharp, carving damage through the moon wolf's sturdy defenses.

However, if the Azure Knight was a close-combat class, the power of the fireball just now was strange.

Like the moonlight cannon fired by Rieve, there do exist long-range attacks with immense power that can be used by front-line classes.

However, the Azure Knight used a purely "magical" attack. The fact that Rieve used an anti-magic barrier rather than a physical barrier was proof of this.

The moon wolf's resistance to magic was not low. The innate magic resistance of the species was high, and among them, Rieve exceeded the usual maximum level of 255 and raised her overall level to 300 through repeated reincarnations.

The fact that the Azure Knight, who should be a close-combat class, could easily break through this magic resistance and inflict damage without using any secret arts was abnormal.

Moreover, the Azure Knight had already died seven times.

Rieve, using various combat tactics gained from numerous practical experiences, had repeatedly killed the Azure Knight, but each time, the Azure Knight had been immediately resurrected.

—It was impossible.

At least in [Tactics Chronicle], such an ability had not been confirmed. There was a fundamental principle that only the king could resurrect subordinates, and even then, there was a limit of two resurrections unless the individual had reincarnated.

In such a situation, the special ability to resurrect oneself more than seven times was clearly abnormal. Even if it was a unique ability unknown to Heryan, an ability that allowed more than seven resurrections was absurd.

When a superpower of a certain world achieved space travel, it caused a discussion about the collapse of game balance, and this was a peculiar phenomenon that was no less significant.

"Guh...!"

Suddenly, a severe pain pierced his skull.

It was not a normal headache. It was the same intense pain he had felt when overusing secret arts in the capital of Lastwood. It was likely that his [Life Force] was running out.

He had already used secret arts multiple times.

Even if Rieve's secret arts were practical and high-cost performance, repeated use would eventually deplete Heryan's [Life Force].

However, this was not an easy enemy to face without using secret arts.

"Secret Art Activation Declaration: 'Fresh Moon's Battle Makeup'"

The newly activated secret art was a physical enhancement type that could only be used when the cumulative damage in the current battle exceeded 50% of the maximum HP.

It boasted a reinforcement rate comparable to "Red Moon's Blessing" and had the effect of granting a two-stroke fixed engraving similar to "Crimson Moon's Holy Scar."

"—Ku...!"

The headache worsened as a result.

The invisible nails pressing against his skull became sharper and dug deeper. Clenching his fists so hard that his nails bit into his skin, he suppressed a groan of agony.

He could not let his pain be noticed. If he showed such a pitiful state, Rieve's mental state would be disrupted. In the already precarious battle, he could not let her realize his pain.

However, the moon wolf, having returned to its demon form, keenly sensed its master's discomfort with its heightened senses. In the midst of high-speed combat, where even a blink was a luxury, something akin to loyalty at the instinctual level screamed in her mind, "Protect the king!"

To which,

"Rieve, don't worry! Just focus on the enemy!!"

The king's voice stopped her.

A moment of hesitation.

But the indecision that Rieve could not shake off,

"Is your king the kind of man who would kneel at this level!?"

was cut off in a single word.

The moon wolf no longer turned back.

To do so would be tantamount to spitting on the king.

Therefore, the moon wolf focused only on the enemy and charged to complete the order as quickly as possible.

"...!"

While keeping the moon wolf's back in his field of vision, Heryan, enduring the pain, picked up a water potion to restore his life force. He had already used one in this battle. This was the second and the last one he had.

The water potion for life force was a very rare item, and he had almost drained it in the capital of Lastwood. The remaining stock was provided to the research team of the Fourth Legion to study whether similar effects could be produced by plants in this world, and he had only brought these two bottles from his homeland.

Ideally, he would have wanted to conserve them for later, but the pain that made it difficult to think clearly left him no choice. Uncapping it with one hand and gulping down the contents, the residual headache remained, but the degree of pain was alleviated. Regaining his ability to think, Heryan focused on the battlefield through the <Virtual Window>.

Rieve had already given the Azure Knight seven deaths, but the damage she had taken in the process was not light. She had healed her injuries with self-healing skills, but she was also using various other skills. This would likely deplete her magic power before her physical strength. The odds of winning were steadily declining. A decisive conclusion needed to be reached quickly.

(Think...!)

The intricacies hidden behind that immortality.

The method to defeat that knight.

The path to victory for that subordinate.

That was what needed to be thought about.

The role of a king, who lacked combat abilities, was to think deeply to guide his forces to victory.

Winning before the battle was the essence, but unexpected battles were bound to occur.

A king who simply watched the battle and left it to his subordinates was at best a third-rate one.

The Azure Knight, every time his skull was shattered or his heart pierced, transcended death and immediately fully resurrected. But there was no truly immortal being. Throughout history, immortality usually had gimmicks or conditions. Even the famous immortal heroes in mythology, like Baldr with the mistletoe or Siegfried with the leaf of the Bodhi tree, had factors that could lead to their death. Therefore, there must be some mechanism behind the Azure Knight's immortality, and unless that mechanism was uncovered, there was no hope of victory.

If it were truly an immortal being, there would be no choice but to give up, but he had already discarded the option of resignation. Staring at the numerous <Virtual Windows> and thinking with his overheated brain,

"—...!"

At that moment, Rieve's body was suddenly thrown back.

The recent strike must have been extremely powerful, as Rieve fell on her back without being able to take a defensive stance. It took a fatal moment to regain her composure. Realizing the critical situation, Rieve had a vision of her own death.

However, what Rieve saw when she raised her head was not the fatal sword blade coming to decapitate her, but the Azure Knight creating over fifty lightning balls on the spot. An unexpected action. Faced with the continuous firing of purple lightning bullets, Rieve, who had been preparing for close combat, was completely caught off guard. Realizing that she could not deploy a barrier in time, she shielded herself with her left arm, knowing it was a foolish move.

Immediately, a thunderous sound like thousands of bamboo poles breaking resounded.

From the lethal area exposed to blinding flashes and lightning, Rieve barely managed to escape. But as a result, her left arm was blackened as if charred, and smoke from the electric shock was rising from her entire body.

Severe damage. It was not hard to imagine that a moment's delay in response would have left her completely charred, but even sacrificing one arm left her in this state. Rieve twisted her eyebrows in bitter pain and used the remaining magic to heal her left arm.

To buy time for recovery, it would have been ideal to maintain a distance and keep each other in check. But there was a premonition that if she fell behind, she would be overwhelmed. Rieve cut the healing of her left arm to a minimum and immediately closed the distance to initiate another close combat.

Through the battle records extracted from the <Record>, Heryan, who had witnessed the entire event, felt a strong question arise in his heart.

(—What was that just now?)

The magical attack just now should have been unexpected for